New Order - Technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkWxlb8EIYE

Been listening to this album a lot lately. Every time I listen to this album I'm always struck by how many fantastic moments there are on it... the hi-hat and throbbing bass on the intro of 'Fine Time' before the drums kick in! That pulsing, phasing synth at the end of 'Round & Round'! The 'Just Like Heaven'-isms of 'All The Way'. Fucking brilliant album. Their most perfect record, IMHO.

I just started getting really really into this for the first time ever! So much fun.

At the end of the video Steve grabs a surfboard and runs straight to the beach!

I was more fascinated by Bernard Sumner's dancing! Aciiieeed!

Best album by the best band of all time!!!!

I'm unsure about 'best band of all time', but it's easy to see why 'Technique' is so highly praised. The consistently strong songwriting, and a clarity in the production that its predecessor 'Brotherhood' lacked (even though I understand some might find the murky production of 'Brotherhood' part of the charm of that record). Those throbbing DX7 basslines, augmented by Peter Hook's unique bass sound. It's probably the New Order album that features the least amount of lyrical clunkers, and I think this was the record where Bernard Sumner truly became a good singer. His voice on the earlier albums was a bit all over the place, although at the same time arguably more expressive - but his vocals here are just sublime, IMO.

On the first Electronic record Sumner showed how much he'd learned from this album.

I'll admit, I haven't heard the first Electronic record aside from the singles ('Getting Away With It', 'Disappointed', 'Get The Message') which I really really liked. I have heard 'Raise The Pressure', though, which I didn't like at all.

You must listen to that first record immediately.

You must listen to that first record immediately.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, October 28, 2011 1:04 AM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark

Noted Ned, will get a hold of it ASAP! Enjoyed your write-up of 'Brotherhood' in the 'Brotherhood' thread, btw!

The Best album evahhh

crikey yeah Electronic wipes the floor with Republic or Brotherhood IMO.
it's fantastic in places. this is one of those places

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ahvctVWv18

also here's a nice B side which james 'LCD' murphy is very fond of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD6-bMRJJZY

I was singing the first track of Electronic's first album in the shower this morning. Great record, don't think it hits the heights of Technique though.

I will stick up for "Raise the Pressure", some nice breezy pop songs on that record. Holds some good memories for me too.

also here's a nice B side which james 'LCD' murphy is very fond of

Wait -- really? Awesome!

it's a great b-side regardless of james murphy

going on a downloading spree, this sounds strangely very modern!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HXXIsgZZkg

I'm very fond of the "Feel Every Beat" b-side "Second to None" – as good as any album track. Love all those synths over the outro.

Love that 808 State remix, dayo.

I've given the first Electronic album a listen as per Ned's recommendation and it is indeed great, of the tracks I hadn't heard before I really enjoyed 'Tighten Up' especially. I guess what prevented me from checking it out was I'd heard 'Raise The Pressure' and thought "hmm... maybe the singles were the best thing about this collaboration", and thus avoided going back and checking the first one out. I'm glad I eventually did. I don't think it gives me the 'lift' that 'Technique' does, but I found it to be a much, much more solid album than 'Republic', easily!

got plenty of love for Republic but anyway - "Some Distant Memory" is the true hidden gem on that first Electronic album (the oboe part!)

I'm finally starting to get Technique---"Fine Time" is a weird opener, I think, jagged & herky-jerky, not anthemic, not particularly melodic: it never brings me into the album. It would work fine as a side 2 track album (I don't mean on *this* album, I mean in terms of the album pacing I prefer). But if I kinda don't pay attention to that opening, "All The Way" gets things started just right.

But yeah, the first Electronic album is a classic, as are the remixes & b-sides.

o_O I think "Fine Time" is ALL anthem and melody!

maybe I'm too young

much too young

o_O I think "Fine Time" is ALL anthem and melody!

― he carried yellow flowers (DJP), Friday, October 28, 2011 3:17 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

Completely agree! And as a statement, it can't be beaten either.

"Fine Time" is also a ridiculously great album starter, one element after another continually built up to create the full song -- it's notable that one of the most stereotypical New Order elements, Hook's bass, is the last thing to appear after everything else, almost like it's the sudden new anchor to the song that slams everything else back into an overall context.

abs.

That's precisely right, re: Hook's bass on the track. The curious thing is that until it kicks in, I don't find myself missing it!

also "All the Way" is my least favorite song on the album by some distance; I generally skip it

haha yeah that's great. maybe what's going on is that I love NO firstly as a rock band & only secondly as a dance band? Both elements are there in all their best work, but "Fine Time" forefronts the dance side & "All The Way" forefronts the (folk) rock side.

That's fair enough. When it comes to their 'dance' side, I think 'Fine Time' is one of their best... I definitely prefer it to stuff like 'Shellshock' and 'Confusion'!

I vividly recall unwrapping the Technique cassette and listening to the opening track on the drive home. It was stunning, thrilling, unexpected. Still my favorite album of all time. Electronic's debut is in my top 5. Rewound Tighten Up so many times I'm surprised the tape didn't break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPIoEr_ubEg

Fine Time sampled nicely in this track.

I had forgotten how effective the 1-2 closing punch of "Vanishing Point"/"Dream Attack" is; I actually almost never listen to this whole album front to back these days so playing the whole thing is a fresh experience all over again.

"All The Way" was for a long time my favorite song. I'd never heard a "confessional" song with a bass track so muscular.

xxxpost:

Listening to Neil Tennant singing about driving his car 'bloody well' on 'The Patience Of A Saint' brought a smile to my face! Great electronic snare sound on that track as well.

I'd like to put forward the opinion that if you removed Bernard Sumner's vocal from 'Guilty Partner', and got Martin Hannett to produce the backing track, you'd have the makings of a Joy Division track.

but why on earth would you do that?

because it would sound murky and forlorn and awesome?

("Guilty Partner" is one of my faves off of the album)

but it already sounds murky, forlorn, and awesome!

it sounds crisp, forlorn and awesome

well, it's my least favorite song: the chorus is meh. But that massive synth wash at the end (and more thrusting Hook bass).

'Guilty Partner' is one of my favourites from the album as well, the moments where the chorus kicks in are so powerful for me.

I'm unsure about 'best band of all time'

They're in a toss-up with two other bands for me. Lean towards them, mostly.

yeah Guilty Partner was always my least fave track; sticks out too much. oddly enough i was present when they played it live for the first time ever! didn't like it any more after that though either.

xpost

What are the two other bands?

When my roommate first played this for me in high school, I absolutely hated it. I couldn't stand the synths and could barely get past the first track. It was only about twenty years later that I realized how unbelievable the songwriting is and that the balance between the synth stuff like Vanishing Point and Hooky acoustic songs like All the Way is just about perfect. My favorite LP of theirs by some distance.

I find a lot of New Order's charm stems from the fact that it orbits "best band of all time" almost entirely by accident, and certainly barely by design.